LOOPER (M) is an innovative addition to the time travel canon.
LOOPER is set in the near future and involves a group of hit men called Loopers who work for a crime syndicate in the further future. Their bosses send targets back in time, and the Looper’s job is to simply shoot them and dispose of the body. The target vanishes from the future and the Looper disposes of a corpse that technically doesn’t exist. A very clean system, unless you let your loop run…
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Joe, a young looper who literally comes face to face with his own mortality when an older version of himself is sent back to be executed. Talk about turning Terminator on its head!
Suddenly the future isn’t what it used to be with young Joe’s present preoccupied with pursuing his future while old Joe, played with bulldog belligerence by Bruce Willis, is diligently dodging his past whilst seeking to secure his future.
LOOPER is a science fiction film of the highest order with fully developed characters and ideas, a mix of action mayhem and moral dilemma.
Writer/director Rian Johnson continues his rise as one of the more interesting American film makers with LOOPER following the audacious and highly entertaining BRICK and THE BROTHERS BLOOM.
Much of the movie’s success is its look and Sharen Davis, costume designer, and Ed Verreaux, production designer, have created an extraordinary textural realm through which the narrative navigates a kind of metro retro dystopia.
Gordon-Levitt is sensational in his characterisation, not only realising Joe’s mindset but emulating Bruce Willis’ physicality to eerie effect.
Jeff Daniels is superb as the crime boss, “doing time” in a backward time, pining for his future, compensating his present by wielding absolute power.
Philosophical, funny, metaphysical, LOOPER is a leap forward in the wake of back footed sci fi remakes where special effects are not so special and the scripts less than ordinary.
© Richard Cotter
20th September, 2012
Tags: Sydney Movie Reviews- LOOPER, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Rian Johnson, Sharen Davis, Ed Verreaux, Gordon Levitt, Jeff Daniels, Emily Blunt, Sydney Arts Guide, Richard Cotter.